Rule 1.Title
Section I. General Provisions · Last verified September 4, 2026
Full Text of Rule 1
Plain-English Summary
Rule 1 does one thing, and it is the reason every other page on this site cites South Carolina's family rules the way it does.
The name
These rules are entitled the South Carolina Rules of Family Court.
The citation form
They "may be cited by Rule number and the letters SCRFC" — and the rule spells out the shape: Rule ___, SCRFC. So the number comes first and the abbreviation follows it: Rule 20, SCRFC, not "SCRFC 20".
That is worth noticing because it is the opposite of how most rulesets are cited. Arizona writes "Ariz. R. Fam. L.P. 30" and Idaho "I.R.F.L.P. 120", both putting the abbreviation first. South Carolina puts it last, and it does the same thing in its civil rules — Rule 55, SCRCP — so a practitioner moving between the two sets meets one convention rather than two.
Why a rule about names matters
The family rules cross-reference constantly, and they cross-reference four different bodies of rules: their own (SCRFC), the civil rules (SCRCP), the evidence rules (SCRE) and the criminal rules. Rule 14 alone names Rules 24 and 27 of these rules and Rules 4, 6 and 4(g) of the civil rules within a few paragraphs of each other. The suffix is what tells a reader which body a number belongs to, and dropping it makes a citation ambiguous rather than merely informal.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are these rules called?
Rule 1 provides that they are entitled the South Carolina Rules of Family Court.
How do I cite a family court rule in South Carolina?
Does the abbreviation go before or after the number?
After. Rule 1's own example is "Rule ___, SCRFC", which matches how the South Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure are cited as "Rule 55, SCRCP".
Why does the suffix matter?
Because these rules cite four different bodies of rules by number — SCRFC, SCRCP, SCRE and the criminal rules. The suffix is what identifies which set a number belongs to.